Speaking of Don Martin…

I came across these animated shorts of Don Martin’s cartoons on YouTube:

I believe they were done by German film producer Hahn Film, and may have been part of a 30 minute TV special called “Don Martin Does It Again”, presumably for German TV. They are definitely in German and not the ones that reportedly appeared on early episodes of MAD TV.

As animation goes these are pretty crude and the funky sharpness of Martin’s art is lost in the process. The best one is the last one entitled “Frog”, which is a gag straight from the pages of MAD.

Speaking of MAD TV specials (not the sketch comedy show), apparently there exists a never aired, 30 minute MAD TV Special pilot from the mid 1970s. This special was supposedly commissioned by a producer or executive who was not familiar with MAD’s humor, and ended up axing it from airing because he found it too ‘adult’. With input from MAD editorial staffers Larry Siegel, Stan Hart, Tom Koch, Earle Doud, and Don “Duck” Edwing, the special features the first animated Spy vs. Spy, some Don Martin animated gags, other animated shorts and even a movie parody “The Oddfather” featuring Mort Drucker‘s work. The features were taken from various issues of MAD from 1963-1973. A complete synopsis and breakdown can be found here.

Apparently you can get bootleg copies of the special on DVD from various shady sources, but no official version exists. I’ve never seen it, and it’s so obscure it isn’t even on YouTube!